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Re: Drying Expert drum

Re: Drying Expert drum

Originally Posted by timparkin

BE VERY CAREFUL WITH A BLOW DRYER!!

I wrecked an expert drum when I dried it with a hair dryer - I assumed the plastic inside the drums was as thick as the plastic at the top - it isn't! It's very thin blown plastic and shrinks with heat so that the drum touches the back of the film.. Very annoying. However, I do now have two drum tops and they're the most difficult to dry.

Tim

Tim- I use the blow dryer on the cold setting. Haven't had any problems.

Re: Drying Expert drum

Originally Posted by wiggywag

...I use the spong, but I dont feel it gets perfectly dry...

Drying efficacy of the sponge rods depends on how old yours is. Early production used natural sponges, which are highly absorbent and, when starting with a dry sponge, leave the chambers perfectly dry. They even have enough capacity left to dry the top surface (where chamber tops connect.

Later production sponge rods use synthetic sponges. They are close to worthless, saturating after wiping out just a couple of chambers, even if the drum is inverted and all chambers drained of water to the maximum extent possible. Fortunately, I have a two early sponge rods to use with all my Expert drums.

Re: Drying Expert drum

If you don't get the chambers dry, the film can stick when inserting it.

When I use the sponges, I look into each tube and have to tilt the sponge in order to smear any water droplets. The sponge does not absorb all the water, but it can break the surface tension of the droplets so they evaporate much more quickly.

Paper towels are compressed dust. I know some people have good results, but I won't use them.

Not all blow driers have a setting with no heat. If I resort to a blow drier, I never use heat because of the delicate nature of the inner drums and because I don't want a heated drum when I am developing film.

For BTZS tubes, you can wrap a flour sack towel (no dust) around a dowel rod and jam it in there. I would never do that with a Jobo!